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How Pinterest Sucks The Fun Out Of St. Patrick’s Day

So, this post is from last year, but has never officially appeared on the site before. Weird, right? We like to keep you on your toes around here! We obviously now know that we were right about the success of Pinterest, and we also know that just like last year, we are slackers at holidays that people on Pinterest make look easy!

There is this new little website, you may not have heard of it yet, so go ahead and write it down now and thank me later for the tip. It is called Pinterest, and I am pretty sure it is going to be *really* popular. I kind of have a sixth sense about these things, so chances are it will probably be the next place where you waste all your time find lots of great ideas for your house and recipes for your family.

Right now, it is flush with suggestions for how to properly celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and not just by having green beer or Irish beef stew, but by doing crazy, kooky things to freak your kids out like having them think an actual leprechaun came into your house and messed things up or left a pot of gold.

Great, so now I have the added pressure from Pinterest to give me ideas on how I can make this holiday extra special for my children. You know what I remember from St. Patrick’s Day when I was a child. Wearing green. And how when you wore green no one would pinch you.

Let me get this straight. So, in December, I spend many, many nights coming up with hiding spots for Little Elf, the cleverer, the better; because that Little Elf needs to be wacky, you know, no sitting quietly on a bookshelf for him. Oh no, he needs to be making snow angels in flour or taking a “bubble bath” in cotton balls or riding around in the Barbie car stealing time with Ken’s best girl. You get the idea, right? The girls love nothing more than the excitement of waking up morning after morning to see where Little Elf will be next. Thank God for Robert and his Elf hand surgical skills, because our Elf has the ability to hang from places most elves don’t due to the tiny magnets Robert carefully sewed into his hands.

Then in February comes Valentine’s Day, and I am supposed to start all over again. Carefully crafting a V-day box for school, buying individual, adorable Valentines with candy or stickers or tattoos to attach to each one, plus of course, buying other stuff for your kid to have waiting for them on Valentine’s morning – making it almost like a mini-Christmas/Easter celebration, because you know it is a really long time between December and April, and my kids probably need something new to help them wait. Not to mention the fact that I sometimes daydream about whipping up some heart-shaped food (it has only ever remained a daydream) or thinking that if I really love my children, I should turn their cereal milk pink.

OR, I could do what I actually did, which was cobble together Emma’s Valentine’s box with appropriate themed wrapping paper (I don’t totally suck here, people!), let her slap some heart stickers and bows on it, and then spend the rest of the evening thanking the baby Jesus that Abby’s Bible-beating preschool makes their Valentine container for them. I can then get them dressed in red and pink clothing and send them out the door with a kiss and a hug – totally fitting with the theme of the day, I might add. But afterwards, I peruse Facebook and Pinterest for an hour to see what all the world’s better mothers did for their children.

Now I am faced with St. Paddy’s Day, because it wouldn’t be a month on the calendar if there wasn’t a “special day” waiting to remind me how much of a slacker I am. I remember last year when I thought I would be all super mom and dye the toilet water green, because those silly little Leprechauns had obviously been up to their tricks and not only did my children not even notice, but when I finally pointed it out to them, Emma basically said, “Oh, I figured you had finally decided to clean it or something.”

So, this year I am going to stick with the classics. I am going with wearing green, and if I am feeling extra loving that day, I will buy some Lucky Charms for their breakfast.

“Oh, I figured you had finally decided to clean it or something.” had me dying!

I would be so pissed if I had to make the Valentine’s Day box at home. I already feel overwhelmed by the task of making the kids address and sign all of the cards for their classmates. Can you tell I’m not prepared for real homework yet?

Wait, what? So know when I have children I have to do something for them on St. Patrick’s Day? I’m just gonna tell them what I told my elementary recess teacher’s: But I’m Jewish (Yes, I actually thought that because I was Jewish I couldn’t do St. Patrick’s Day, silly youngster that I was…but I think it makes for a great excuse as when I have children!)

Were you joking about that being a year old? It’s so true though…. If I was going to look put together enough to pull off one of those pinnable posts, if have to slack off for a week afterward to balance it out.

Hilarious! I’m such a slacker that I forgot to put out my Valentine’s decorations and forget about St. Patrick’s Day decor. I was a much better teacher than I am a mother when it comes to stuff like that. I think it’s because I didn’t have to clean up the glitter that the leprechauns left when they visited (as a mom, I HATE glitter).

Ok why are we even thinking about doing crafty stuff for St. Patricks day. Like you wear green don’t get pinched. Period. I don’t push the elaborate bored mom who has nothing better to do than make a celebration out of something, so let me make a craft no one else would have done or used. Yeah not me lol.. The ONLY holidays I do decorations for are Christmas and Halloween. Period.

{Melinda} Gotta tell you … I’m over it! Christmas is the only holiday that I spend much time thinking about or preparing for. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I no longer care if I have Pin-worthy celebrations! Sometimes I feel lucky to just make it through each day without major catastrophe! 🙂 Funny post, as always!

Wow! You do have a 6th sense. You were so right about Pinterest! lol. The extent of St. Patty’s Day will be to send the kids out wearing green. I might put a green cupcake in her lunch box or something…and that’s just because she asked. Fun post!

Until the children get into “real” school and I get assigned to make them holiday treats such as these. Only then will I bow to this crazy! Until then, I will shake my head slowly. And act like the Dikembe Mutumbo Geico commerical (slap!) “not in my house!”

haha…I also discovered Pinterest about a year ago. So now I have gone through all of the holidays and seen the activities of people who clearly have more time than I do. I envy that! My free time (older one at school, baby napping) is for reading blogs and editing photos. Pink milk? Buy Strawberry Quik? Easy as pie! Oh, Easter was hard for me on Pinterest. I had failed the Gestational Diabetes screen and was waiting for the results of further testing. I turned out to be fine but I had been tortured by Pinterest chocolate recipes for a few weeks..

I tell you what, you’re two steps ahead of me because rarely do I remember to wear green on St. Pattie’s Day and hardly ever do I eat Lucky Charm’s. I don’t drink beer, but I will pour a glass or two of wine. Yipee!!!

Ya gotta love Emma! Burst out laughing at her comment about the green water…..and I am with you on the “keeping it simple” idea for this “holiday!” I really do tire of all the “over-the-top” things some people do – not that it is not fun and clever and all those things, but man, let’s give it a rest once in a while and enjoy the simplicity of life! Good for you!

I don’t think my kids even have anything GREEN TO WEAR for crying out loud! I am not addicted to Pinterest because I confess…I don’t do crafts and I don’t really even want to look at them… My boy didn’t even bring a box for V day party. Yup. He wasn’t into it, so I figured why force it upon both of us? He came home with a ziplock bag of goodies. BOOM! lol

All right- I’ve decided. I am joining Pinterest today. But I will still be a slacker mom who is simply not capable of all that cutesy holiday frivolity. My daughter told me today that she was SO excited for St. Patrick’s Day. I stared blankly and asked, “Why?” I guess she’s excited about leprechauns. Which means I need to do some kind of Elf-y trick or something. Better get some ideas quick!

LOL! So true that Pinterest can add tons of pressure. I love looking at all the fabulous and elaborate ideas, but I like to keep it simple. There are much simpler ways to celebrate. I laughed out loud at the wacky elf freaking the kids out. So true! he he..

I feel you! I have to make a leprechaun-cathcer for my daughter’s preschool. Now, when we did this with my son, some of these insane parents brought in these elaborate catchers that rivaled something a full-time artist might make.

Definitely NO extra-ness over here! We don’t even have to wear green because St. Patty’s day falls on a Sunday! We will be slumming around our house as usual on that Sunday, no words of that day will be mentioned! LOL!

What? You don’t do something in January for Martin Luther King Day? Slacker. Haha. This post cracks me up. Just keep in mind that most people on Pinterest are like me: we pin tons of cute ideas, execute about 3 percent, and of that 3 percent, only 1 percent actually turns out as planned!

Oh boy…I am feeling like a bad mom right now…I never did any of that stuff for St. Patrick’s Day! And most of the time I forget to wear green too which is pretty ridiculous considering its my favorite color and I have a lot of it in my closet!

You girls know that this Irish girl loves a good St. Patty’s post AND loves me some Pinterest! Excellent! Why on earth didn’t you publish this last year? Genius. Sheer awesomeness! Keep on keeping on. Erin

That Emma is a riot! I am so glad that my kids are grandkids. At 43 it gives me the best if both worlds. I can relate to all of you with kids but I don’t actually have to do the work. Ha! Benefits of having your kids young. 🙂

I loathe Pinterest – except of course for your “Oh Honey No” board because I feel like it has upped the ante on all things domestic goddess-dom – which does not bode well for an un-crafty girl like me. I’m sticking to green too and that’s it. Enough said!

We’re on the hook for bringing donut holes to school on Friday, but the actual day will just be about wearing green. Who the heck ever wanted to make their kids think that a miniature man was going through their house causing trouble? Seems a little disturbing to me….

What cracks me up about this is that my honest-to-goodness first thought when I started to see all these “great” activities for St. Patrick’s Day was, “Wait a minute, I thought all you did on St. Patrick’s Day was wear green. Where did all this other stuff come from?”

Yeah. I don’t even care. Pinterest and the Pinterest Mommies can suck it. Considering I didn’t even want to get the Christmas tree out this year, I seriously doubt I’ll be doing any special crafts for freaking St. Patrick’s Day.

I’m always happy when St Patrick’s Day happens over spring break. Then I can skip it and not risk comparative mothering with the other moms at school. I’m probably going to throw some corned beef in the crock pot and put the kids in something green. That’s enough, right?

Ha ha! This did make me laugh. It is true though, I’m not a parent but those who are must have a lot to live up to with all the lovely stuff on Pinterest and peoples blogs. Funny enough I printed off some stuff to use at a girls night tonight but after trying to cut out 1 moustache I gave up because it was too fiddly and no patience this evening ;D

Yes! Because if I love my kids I would make heart shaped pieces of cantaloupe for her lunch and breakfast would be made from scratch pancakes shaped like cupid. I have a friend that gets into all that and has the nerve to ask me what I did after she finishes tellubg me about her Valentine’s day “tablescape” for the dinner table.

Love this post! Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Pinterest crafting. But seriously, Pinterest is such a glorified ridiculous version of life. Sometimes I get sick looking at how organized, fashionable, and crafty people can be. It is quite discouraging. I’m not even close to kids, but the concept of not only my home and wardrobe looking amazing but my kids rooms and birthday parties too? Oh, God help me!

Pinterest, how we have a love-hate thing going on! You take up too much of my time yet give me so many good ideas. *sigh* Between you and Facebook, I am doomed… *hangs head sadly*

On another note, I just wanted to let you girls know that I am having a link-up party on Fibro, Fit and Fab! where you get a chance to highlight your friends (you can read more about it there if you’re interested) this week, and I, of course, have chosen to highlight some of my blogger besties each day of the link-up. Guess who I picked as part of today’s friends to highlight? Why, none other than my dear friends on the Dose! 🙂 I hope you will stop by, if you have the time and share in the fun, but even if you can’t, I want you to know that I appreciate you gals and love all the support you give! <3